The United Nations’ new environment chief, Inger Andersen, will push for fossil fuel workers to get a chance at joining the growing green energy sector, she said in an interview.

The Danish economist, who began as executive director of UN Environment earlier this month, emphasised the need to care for those left unemployed as swathes of the global economy swap carbon-heavy energy like coal for renewable sources like solar.

Such a seismic shift would not happen “in a dime”, she said.

“We need to make sure that we leave no one behind and that it is indeed a just transition,” she added.

Rich countries, particularly, are moving away from polluting fossil fuels and adopting cleaner energy, many shutting down coal-fired power plants and leaving cohorts of workers jobless.

In Germany, for instance, renewables made up more than 40 per cent of the energy mix last year – beating coal for the first time. Four in ten of the world’s coal plants are unprofitable, a November report by think tank Carbon Tracker found.

Investments in renewable power, meanwhile, “bring in new types of jobs to the labour market”, Andersen told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Nairobi.

The farmers of Pangoa rely on their crops to survive. So for nearly twenty years, Esperanza Dionisio Castillo and her team decided to invest for impact for the long-term health of the land. Recognizing that a changing climate impacts the areas where coffee and cocoa can grow, Pangoa launched a reforestation initiative, planting trees that will create microclimates where these crops can thrive for years to come. Additionally, Pangoa’s agronomists regularly offer producers trainings on sustainability, from the proper use of compost to why it’s important to avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
The technical team from the Pangoa cooperative has taught us how to prune correctly, how to control disease, how to fertilize. We don’t spray. And when we plant new seedlings, we use our compost for fertilizer. We’ve learned how working with the organic program helps protect the environment.
Esperanza and her team are pioneering a model of how agriculture can transform communities. Their vision and determination are exactly what draws Root to invest in rural businesses across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. We see the same potential for impact in these enterprises that Esperanza saw when she took the helm of Pangoa 20 years ago.
Read the full article on investing for impact at ImpactAlpha

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